The only way for you to become a werewolf in the game is through the Companions. That doesn't mean there can't be wild werewolves (Sinding is one such werewolf; he isn't connected to The Circle at all, AFAIK), just that you can't be infected by them for gameplay and story reasons. In lore, there are werewolves all over Tamriel and you have a chance of catching the disease if you're scratched or bitten by one... then if you don't cure it in three days, it's "permanent". The Circle is a unique group of werewolves, not the only group.

I find the sliverhand an extremely strange organization.
1. They attack on sight, regardless if you are werewolf or not. This basically makes them common bandits.
2. They vastly out number their prey, what are they going to do afterward once they wiped out the werewolves?
3. They do not have presence outside their forts, such as hunting parties, so are they breeding/creating werewolves or something.

I find the sliverhand an extremely strange organization.
1. They attack on sight, regardless if you are werewolf or not. This basically makes them common bandits.
2. They vastly out number their prey, what are they going to do afterward once they wiped out the werewolves?
3. They do not have presence outside their forts, such as hunting parties, so are they breeding/creating werewolves or something.

Well, considering they're into torture and murder, they're not really much better than common bandits. The authorities would see them as a threat if they sometimes kill and torture innocent people by mistake (which they seem fully willing to do; they were going to kill Farkas without knowing for sure that he was a werewolf). They wouldn't take kindly to random adventurers reporting their location to the guards.


Werewolves are very hard to eliminate. It's not like you can really tell who's a werewolf without them being in beast form, plus lycanthropy is hereditary and can "skip" generations (so it can pop up again when you least expect it).

Plus, it's a divine disease. Even if they did manage to kill all of them, Hircine could just send one of his hounds, or turn a devout follower, to infect people and start it all over again.


I'd say it's a gameplay thing. They were common enemy fodder given a special name for their associated quests. Though I wouldn't put it past them to infect innocent people and create some for their own ends (say, for study or practice).